Reasons Students Should Take High School Psychology

I teach both Introduction to Psychology and Advanced Placement Psychology. The 2019-2020 school year will be my third year teaching these courses. It has been an interesting change of pace for me, and our students seem to appreciate the opportunity to take these courses. For my spring semester classes, part of their final exam project asked students if they thought other students should take high school psychology and why. Below, I have listed some of their reasons (in bold). My commentary is in italics. Discussion of any of their statements is welcome!

NOTE: Please excuse grammar or spelling errors. I did not edit student responses. Also, all the reasons listed below focus on psychology content, not lessons or activities from my classes, nor do any reasons reflect me personally. Therefore, they might be generalized to other schools.

“Makes teenagers aware of topics that schools and parents are afraid to share with us.” This one made me pause for a moment as a parent. Am I as open with my own daughter as I am with my psychology students?

“People should take psychology because not only do you learn about how people work, you learn about how you should act. For example, I would use terms such as ‘omigosh, I’m so depressed’ or ‘this is triggering my anxiety.’ I know this isn’t right because I’m not diagnosed with these mental disorders and that I’m trivializing it.” Being sensitive to others’ health was something these students internalized.

“Taught me that people have illnesses and that they are still people.” Removing the stigma!

“Other students should take this course, because it allows you to learn how to respect people with a mental illness. Now instead of calling a boy autistic, I call him a boy with autism.” I am most proud of this! People first!

“You learn that everyone has different circumstances. If I wasn’t in this class, I would’ve thought that someone who was moody was just mean, but they could have not had enough sleep or be struggling with their mental health.” Empathy for the win!

“If you like helping others it a great class to take. You learn about what people go through and how the certain disorder or mental health can play a big part in a person’s life, and how you could in any way possible help them.” Learning to be servants.

“The sleep unit helped me remember my dreams better because it gave me tips on how to

remember them. It also helped me learn about how much sleep I should get per night and

I realized I was not getting enough sleep.” Sleep is so important for teens. They should get

8.5 to 10.5 hours per night, and contrary to popular belief, you can’t make it up another night.

“During the memory unit I learned valuable test taking and study skills. I learned that chunking and repetition seem to be my favorite 2 ways to study, but quizzing also helps me retain information also. Using the knowledge I learned during the memory unit I know have better strategies and my grades have improved knowing that I know how to study.” So psychology is interesting AND beneficial!

“A thing that this class helped me with was learning about how our memory works. We learned how to study more efficiently.” Similar, but worth noting that the function of cognition was the focus of the unit.

“In psychology, we learned a lot about the way our body produces emotion, deals

with stress, all the kinds of development, different mental disorders and so much more.

Because of this knowledge, we can apply it to the real world with different coping

mechanisms and things we can do to help others. Being educated with the stages of

development has especially helped me with children because I am frequently

babysitting.” In addition to content knowledge, psychology helped this student make money!

“This class benefited me in a lot of ways, but I think the number one way that this class

benefitted me was teaching me what mental health really was. I used to think mental health

wasn’t really important and I used to judge people who thought it was. I now know that it is

a real thing, and although all of us don’t have a mental illness, we all have mental health. I

can now tell other people about it and be more empathetic with the people who do have it.”

Mental health IS health.

“What I think will benefit me the most is the social psychology section. All of the

Persuasion techniques will help me out in life with the business world and persuading

my parents.” Oops. 😉